As we approach the next election and the end days of Menzies' now-unrecognisable Liberal Party, Ross Jones suggests we sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy the final implosion.
WE SHOULD enjoy the coming year. It will be a time when we watch, in exquisite slow-motion, the final implosion of Menzies’ creation — the Liberal Party of Australia. Apart from the odd rumps, which will keep coming like the Terminator’s skeletal hand, they are gone.
It has long been obvious the self-serving Party, which bought us such luminaries as Harold Holt, Billy McMahon and the quintessential bullied-child-come-war-monger, John Howard, has pined for the authoritarian might of its founder. And in Abbott they thought they had found their man. But he is not their man. He is someone else’s man.
This man has another agenda and it is not the Liberal Party. It is certainly not Australia. It is a philosophy. The Englishman has global loyalties and he is moving licketty-split to make sure the Australian nation state is made irrevocably subservient to his one per cent backers before the electorate hand #OneTermTony (OTT) his UK passport. Labor might get back in, but to a transformed landscape in which it will struggle to cope.
It’s going well so far and there is fat chance OTT will call an early election. It’s not in the script.
So there is at least a year to go and, in that year, no Lib minister is going anywhere. As far as Abbott is concerned, the compliant ducks are all lined up in their right places.
AUST people just waiting for next election to make ABBOTT #onetermtony #putlibsnatslast #auspol @randlight @davrosz https://t.co/N9cBOzprGo
— Gold Coast Nurse (@GoldCoastNurse) July 21, 2015
And that brings us back to the point. Enjoyment.
Once you learn to lie back and think of England, you can smell the roses.
And the rose du jour is none other than OTT’s hand-picked treasurer, Joseph Benedict Hockey, recently transformed into an egg dish by Justice White.
According to The Canberra Times,
‘Treasurer Joe Hockey is offering privileged access to a select group including business people and industry lobbyists in return for tens of thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberal Party.'
Read more on the 'Treasurer for Sale' here.
Hockey, puffed up elitist that he is, sued. Justice White, while awarding the now well-publicised costs, said his order …
‘… should reflect Mr Hockey’s failure altogether on the claims against The Canberra Times.’
So access to Hockey is assured if you have the resources to feather his electoral nest. Me, I’d call it corrupt. Hockey will never regain public confidence.
Arrogance and hubris from @JoeHockey's sense of entitlement plus Liberal greed.. A lesson to all! #Auspol #fairfax pic.twitter.com/g3lChhWqHS
— Samantha (@Samantha4777) July 23, 2015
Then there is Bronwyn – Good Morning Geelong! – a woman who redefines the word "stooge". And because she is a stooge she will survive as Speaker, another duck in the row.
A sense of entitlement is generated from above. Leaders always know they are on thin ice and, for the venal ones, the judicial use of the blind-eye is a go-to trick to shore up power.
Abbott is giving his ministers their head in the safe knowledge he won’t be around to pick up the pieces of their upcoming electoral nightmare.
What further thrills await?
Will a cabinet minister turn up on the hacked Ashley-Madison database?
"Hi, my name is xxx, my wife doesn’t understand me, I am into….."
Or maybe the conjunction of a brown paper bag and an iPhone. Or a simple night out at Crown Casino.
Who knows?
As we near the end days, things will get wilder. Sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy.
Ross Jones' book on Ashbygate is due out in hardcopy and e-book form next month. If you would be interested in pre-ordering, please email us here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Bronwyn Bishop seen heading to the corner store for a carton of milk & loaf of bread pic.twitter.com/bc13imKso9
— David Carter (@chef09876) July 19, 2015
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